Now, I am exaggerating a little. I am not yelling at kids while they are sleeping. I don’t yell at kids while they are at swim practice. I leave that to the coaches. :-p But, when we are home or in the car…

At home, the kids are starting to get on each other’s nerves. I cleaned out the basement playroom with the help of my minions. The playroom is ready for occupants. I only have one slight problem none of the children want to step foot in the playroom. All three would prefer to do any of the following activities:

• run through the house
• run through any area where anyone is tryi8ng to do something quietly…read a book, work on the computer, nap
• run through the house shooting Nerf guns
• run through the house scattering Googly Bands
• run through the dining room office while I am on a call
• run through the bedroom office while my husband is on a call
• argue loudly over why someone should trade their Cowboy Googly Band for a Pirate one when anyone is on a call
• make an impassioned plea to be allowed to stay up late because it is Tuesday and the summer…Go to bed, kid.
• continue making pleas about the injustices of bedtime to a parent or two who just simply need the kids to go to bed
• and the piece de resistance…kids arguing with each other over which is the most preferable chair in the kitchen. I. Give. Up.

Ay Caramba! I do not know how my mother managed to survive the summer with my sister and I at home. We never went to camps or attended classes. It was three months of very little planned. The weekly or twice weekly trip to the pool at the garden apartment complex near our house. The occasional friend over to play. The weekend trips to Cheasequake Park in NJ.

How did my mother manage my sister and I over the long, hot summers? Some of the summers we returned to England to stay with my grandmother. Four words — Small House. Loud Kids.

How did our mothers deal with us? Most summers I played at home, played at the pool, and that was it. Was my mother yelling at us all the time? Did she feel as relieved as I do when the kids are in bed for the night? Note: My husband does most of the bedtimes, but I get a vicarious thrill when he comes downstairs after everyone is in bed…not asleep but in bed.

My kids have activities and things they need to do, but there is no end to the bickering. Did I spend the summer arguing? I have no recollection. I do recall spending many hours digging a hole in the dirt with neighbors. I also rode my bike. Played at a playground until all hours.

Maybe that’s it. Our mothers weren’t bothered by kids arguing because we were outside playing all day and night. Now, if only neighbors would move in who had kids…

It was Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. There were no supermarkets. No big box stores. No large shopping malls. For large items she would take the bus in to Manchester. For everything else she shopped at the corner shops.

The shopkeepers knew her. She knew them. If she needed a new book, one of the shopkeepers would order it for her. If she wanted a particular cut of meat the storekeeper would save the cut for her. The shopkeepers saved chocolate bars for me — “the English-born America-residing granddaughter come to visit.” The shopkeepers needed my grandmother and she needed them. A win-win retail situation.

I was thrilled to learn that I could open my own corner shop…virtually. OpenSky is a store where I only sell products that I have touched, worked with, squeezed, and reviewed on my blog. That’s it. If I haven’t worked with the product how will I know if you will like it or not.

My selection is small but growing. Here’s what I am selling:

• Soft, safe building blocks…limitless possibilities for designing the perfect structure for little kids.
• Scrapbooking supplies for capturing your memories from Disney!
• Wall stickers in the shape of a train. Win!
• and more

Come check my OpenSky store out. Would love it if you could pass on my link to your friends.

I was born in Manchester. We spent many rainy, windy days bundled in blankets behind windbreaks sipping hot tea at the “seaside” in Southport. My sister and I would run about on the beach. The sea was miles away.

My parents and grandmother would cower behind the windbreak that was attached to the car we drove on the beach. The sea seemed to be miles away.

As a child I spent vacations in the summer sun and summer cold. I moved from Withington, Manchester, to New Jersey back to Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, back to New Jersey back to Wilmslow, Cheshire, all before the age of 10. In my teens we lived in Italy. I moved to Pennsylvania for college and now live in Maryland.

I miss many things about England…but not the cold summers!

What question perplexes me most on forms and questionnaires? The question I find most difficult to answer is what major city do I live closest to?

As a child through my pre-children years, I would have had several answers:

• 0-4 years — Manchester, England
• 5-8 — New York City
• 9-10 — Manchester, England
• 11 — New York City
• 12-15 — Manchester, England
• 16-18 — Milan, Italy
• 19-22 — Philadelphia
• 23-29 — Washington, D.C.

Yes, my childhood was madness personified!

In 1994, my husband and I realized that our tiny townhouse in Montgomery Village was not big enough to accommodate all our stuff let alone a child! I was happily working in Gaithersburg while my husband commuted to Damascus. We were a stone’s throw from the Shady Grove Metro. I had commuted to DC for work each day before finding a job closer to home. I still took the Metro once or twice a week to George Washington University for graduate classes. Occasionally we would visit an art gallery or museum in D.C. In short, we were D.C. people.

In late 1993, we began our search for a new place to grow roots and hopefully start a family. We quickly realized that Montgomery County, MD, was out of the question. House prices were through the roof. We wanted to build our own home. My husband had this crazy notion that he wanted to buy land. He grew up on 3/4 of an acre, which meant he found our townhouse neighbors too close for comfort.

The quest for land took us to Frederick and Carroll counties. The drive out to both was daunting. We drove in nonrush hour times and on weekends. House after house failed to appeal to us. Some were too small…too expensive…too weird (we stumbled in to a community of senior citizen bungalow townhomes with roll-in showers and extra wide doorways)…too near to massive power lines (seriously, the powerline was where I envisioned having a play structure).

Our search was stalled. We were about to give up when my FIL showed us a listing for a new development in Howard county. The drive out to Howard sold us before we even go to the house. We saw not one car as we drove over the Montgomery county line. It was a ghost town — in a good way — that Sunday afternoon.

The neighborhood — a former farm that my FIL recalled playing at — was almost completely developed with only 5 or 6 lots left. Most of the lots had steep, treacherous driveways that would be nightmarish to mow. The last lot we looked at was perfect. Too close to the road for some, but flat enough for us to visualize our “kids” riding bikes down the completely flat driveway. Welcome to Baltimore, hon!

Through some finagling of finances we were able to swing the much higher home price and lot price. In June 1994 we were the proud owners of 3 acres and 1 new home…thankfully no mule…in Woodbine, MD!

Woodbine has changed over the years, but remains a safe place to live. Thanks to some draconian county laws, many of the farms are in historic preservation. I can’t tell you how relieved we were to find that the farm we can see through our kitchen window would remain a farm. Our neighborhood is bordered on 3 sides by county parkland and 1 side by a semi-working farm.

Which brings me back to the question of what city I live closest to. Howard County is in a no-man’s land. Not a part of the DC Metro Area and not a suburb of Baltimore City and County. I have done what anyone would do — I call both cities my own.

When I am in a DC frame of mind I recall visits to the International Spy Museum, reading the Washington Post, and almost meeting Guy Fieri. As a DC Mommy I go here to find out about events, things to do, and places to shop.

But, let’s not forget my Baltimore side. As a pseudo-Baltimorean, I recall fun times at Port Discovery, flying out of BWI, and inflating our Christmas decorations.

Sometimes I think about what it is like to live in Woodbine with my clutter woes and new-to-us holiday traditions.

Woodbine is not famous for anything. It is a cluster of homes and farms with parkland thrown in for good measure. Woodbine is split between two counties. We’re south of the railroad tracks in Howard County, while those north of the tracks are Carroll County.

Searching the brief entry on Wikipedia I know that…

• Woodbine is named after a plant that grows in fields and on riverbanks.
• Lisbon our neighboring town is home to the first traffic circle in Maryland. Lisbon now has two, woohoo!
• During the Civil War, Rebel cavalry crossed the Patapsco River at Woodbine scouting the Union Army that was on its way to the Battle of Gettysburg.

If you are passing through Woodbine, you might want to stop at Larriland Farms to pick some of the best fruit out there or go on a fall hayride, visit the horses that are nursed back to health at the Days End Horse Rescue Farm, or check out the Woodbine Facebook page.

I wrote this post as part of Blogtrotting. For more information about Blogtrotting, go here.

With Dave Barry at the WeGiveBooks.org Press Conference

As a kid I devoured books. I read through the Judy Blumes. I raced through Harriet the Spy. I became obsessed with reading every book in the Chalet School book series. The Chalet School books were written in 1930s and 1940s. The books were hard to come by, but I found them at the library, at bookstores, and at school. Now, can you imagine not being able to have access to books?

Amy Tan shared her story of her childhood. The books she treasured were books given to her by missionaries. It was not until she was a little older that she was able to get a library card. The library opened up the world of books to her. I know that my children have benefited from reading books in our home, at the bookstore, and at school. My children know that I will almost never deny them a book.

Amy Tan shared her childhood memory of books at the Washington, D.C., launch of the WeGiveBooks.org. We Give Books is a venture between Penguin Books and the Pearson Foundation. So far 3,178 (correction: 3,710 books have been donated since I started this post!) books have been donated by We Give Books to organizations that distribute books to children all over the world and the U.S. I missed meeting Amy Tan. I’m a little mad at myself, as I have read most of Tan’s books.

Here’s how it works…moms…dads…grandparents…teachers…go to WeGiveBooks.org. Once on the site, choose a campaign from the list of campaigns, such as:

• NEA Foundation’s Books Across America
• Haiti Learning Spaces
• United Through Reading — donate books to military families

Once a campaign is chosen, you can choose a book to read to a child from a list divided by in to categories “New Releases,” “0-3,” “4-7,” and “8-10.” When the books is read, a book will be donated to the organization of your choice. It’s that simple.

A treat for me was meeting Dave Barry at the end of the press conference. Barry was syndicated in the Washington Post Magazine each Sunday.

I wrote this review as part of a campaign by Mom Central on behalf of We Give Books and received breakfast, tickets to the Rock Bottom Remainders concert, and a gift certificate.

How is it that I spent my teen years eating Nutella sandwiches after school, but missed World Nutella Day? I can still smell the chocolatey goodness that was Nutella. I had the freshman 15 BEFORE college due in large part to eating Nutella sandwiches and English chips and gravy EVERY day. When I write statements like this, suddenly my present-day eating habits seem positively healthy by comparison. Food consumption in the England of my childhood was a landmine of fat, lard, gravy, and fried foods…all washed down with cups of hot milky tea.

February 5, 2010, was World Nutella Day! I missed it! Nutella even has a twitter account…and I missed it…and I am on twitter all day. A serious social media fail on my part.

I’m not a nut person — I am a nut, though. I could deal with the nuts if the nuts were hidden by rich chocolate.

Chocolate + Nuts completely submerged in Nutella = Yum.

Why was I so hungry after school anyway? My school was a 1 and a 1/4 hours away from home. My journey was as follows:

• walk to train station from my house
• take train from Wilmslow railway station to center of Manchester getting off at Oxford Street railway station
• walk from the train station to a bus stop
• take a bus from center of Manchester to Moss Side
• walk from the bus stop to Loreto VIth Form College

My school was surrounded by a brick wall with broken glass embedded in the top of the brick wall. Nice! No intruders were entering my school.

Phew! I’m exhausted just writing about my school commute. My journey was 1 and 1/4 hours each way. No wonder I chowed down on a Nutella sandwich after school. I would spread that gooey, yummy spread on white bread before I watched afterschool TV.

Now, I must explain that afterschool TV in Britain was a wasteland. First of all there were 3 TV channels. I recall sitting on the edge of our coffee table waiting for Channel 4 to start broadcasting. It was a momentous event to get a fourth TV channel. Secondly the TV shows ranged from shows for preschoolers to shows for teens. I would have to sit through The Wombles in order to get to something I really wanted to watch, like Blue Peter.

Here’s a little taste of all that was kids’ TV in the late 70s/early 80s. The video features The Wombles, Bod, Bagpuss, and Trumpton.

So why am I all a quiver about missing World Nutella Day. Well, I purchased a jar of Nutella after seeing one at Weis Market. I usually walk right past, but couldn’t resist bringing it home to the kids. It was a hit. All of us had it for breakfast on wheat bread. At least it wasn’t on white bread!

The other reason that I found out about it was from 5 Minutes for Mom’s Ultimate Blog Party. I scooted to peruse DaenelT’s post on herself. What should I spy but her love for Nutella!! She mentioned a recipe for a Nutella Milk Shake from Bell’Alimento. What?! This can’t be true. Where has this awesomeness been hiding? Away from me. I might just make one for myself tonight!

In conclusion, I heart Ultimate Blog Party and 5 Minutes for Mom!

As a new to the United States college student, I was intrigued by everyone’s love for St. Patrick’s Day. Green beer, shamrocks, four leaf clovers! What’s not to love? I attended a school run by an order of nuns from Ireland as a kid in England. Back home St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated in a very low key way…we celebrated mass on St. Patrick’s Day.

If you are Irish or not, St. Patrick’s Day is a day of community and celebration. My first experience with St. Patrick’s Day was green beer at a frat party — as a college student in Pennsylvania. I was not then and am not now a beer drinker, but there is something infectious about seeing people celebrate with a green beer!

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and it’s not the luck of the Irish that will keep the roads safe. It’s planning now for a safe and sober way home. Are you headed out with friends after work this Wednesday to celebrate the holiday? No? Well when you and your family are on the road headed to choir practice, a t-ball game, or coming home from school, you may be sharing the road with those returning from a fun St. Patrick’s Day event.  It’s time to spread the word about the dangers of buzzed driving and to remind people that Buzzed Driving IS Drunk Driving, and the best way to stay safe is to plan ahead.

Let’s remind everyone about the importance of remembering to:

• Designate a sober driver before you leave for your event.
• Be ready to take alternate transportation such as a bus or taxi. Have the phone number of a taxi service stored in your phone before you leave for the party.

Even if you will not be celebrating this St. Patrick’s Day, keep in mind that in 2008, 1,179 people in other vehicles were killed in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers. And for those who don’t plan on over-indulging, a buzzed driving crash looks the same as a drunk driving crash.

Global Influence is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Ad Council as they continue their efforts with the Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving PSA campaign. Buzzed drivers drink and drive, but do not consider themselves a hazard on the roadway because they have had only a few drinks. The campaign hopes to educate people that consuming even a few drinks can impair driving and that Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.

To learn more about the impact buzzed driving can have on a life, please watch this important video about the financial and personal repercussions of getting a DUI: http://buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org/sign.php#video

Remember: Buzzed Driving IS Drunk Driving. Plan ahead and ask your loved ones to do the same.

For more information, visit Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving on Facebook and Twitter (@Buzzeddriving).

Grease! I may not be the biggest Grease or musical theater fan, but Grease: the Soundtrack was the first album I ever purchased. I bought it from Woolworth’s in Wilmslow…a small town outside Manchester, England. It was a double album…yes, I am an olde fogey! I could not afford to buy the Grease album by myself, so split the cost with my sister. In fact, we were protective of our purchase so much so that we bought a plastic cover. I think I still have the album…buried in my parents’ basement!

Want to win a family pack of tickets to see Grease? Go here if you live in DC/MD/VA! I entered!

Shop the Walmart after-Christmas sale for bath products, small toys, and Christmas-themed items. Save for following Christmas.

Target $1 or the Dollar Store are also good, but be aware of small pieces, lead paint, and choking hazards. Dollar Store has good selection of tiny puzzles — great for stockings.

I place the following items in the stocking: M&M filled train or candy dispenser, Pez, small notebook/book/pencils, puzzle, small game. I make sure each child has exactly the same number of items. I don’t wrap gifts in the stocking. The stockings are always lying on the coffee table as our stocking holders are not sturdy and would fall off the mantle shelf if I hung the filled stockings. Note: My younger kids don’t read my blog, so will think stocking comes from Santa!

Less expensive toys

Purchase amazon.com Prime shipping. Before purchasing any toy, I check amazon Prime items, then purchase. I save alot of $$ by shopping amazon Prime. Free shipping!!

I purchase gifts throughout the year for my kids who are 10-and-under. Once the preteen/teen years hit, my children do not decide on what they wante until late November. Younger kids like themed items. I stockpiled Thomas engines from Toys R Us sales, Diego items, Barbies, American Girl accessories purchased on clearance from AG, and Bob the Builder.

Books, books, and more books — Our schools have a fall Book Fair. I let the children chose 2-4 books. I save one for Christmas. Sometimes not cheap, but proceeds go back to school. This year my son chose a book/play set called Lego Brickmasters Castle. Puzzle books are also good. Coloring books for little kids with crayons or markers.

Craft kids — Target, Walmart, Toys R Us always have a range of craft kits for $10 or less.

Sets of animals or action figures — Toys R Us have sets of safari, jungle, dinosaurs. My son got a construction vehicle set one year — it was $9 and contained 5 vehicles and accessories.

And of course, the absolute cheapest toy out there is the toy/CD/DVD/game won in a giveaway from a blog! I won a Nintendo DS, which I gave to my son for his birthday. I also won a Flip video camera — not sure which kid is getting it.

Decorations for your home

Nativity scenes — I have 3 children so having three nativity sets helps — we have a Lladro set, which was a wedding present, a Little People set, and a Hallmark set. Each child sets up their own scene. We place Baby Jesus in the manger when we come home on Christmas Eve.

Christmas tree — We use a fake tree. Lights, tinsel, decorations with a Christmas train around the base of the tree.

Christmas village — Years ago, my mother purchased items for the It’s A Wonderful Life village. We set it out each year always on top of a white fabric. I sprinkle fake snow on top of the fabric.

Foods to prepare for your Christmas dinner — I’m English so I “bring to the table” Christmas crackers, sausages wrapped in bacon, bread sauce, Christmas pudding with white sauce, Christmas cake. My husband is American so he brings green bean casserole, stuffing biscuits, sweet potatoe casserole, and pumpkin pie.

Holiday Gift Guide Preview

Stumped for what to give the kid, preteen, or teen in your life. Check out — Yoursphere.com

Yoursphere.com is the social network for kids and teens that puts safety first and provides a positive and age appropriate alternative to Facebook, Myspace, and other sites created by adults for adults. Yoursphere was founded by a mom of 5 who was concerned about her children’s safety on the internet. Yoursphere is a social network for kids and teens, which unlike other sites offers: 

·       Identity verification, predator check, and requires verifiable parental consent

·       Limits participation to kids and teens through age 18. (Kids can be members until they turn 19.)

·       All content is created by kids and teens for kids and teens. No worries about adult content.

·       There are no ads on Yoursphere. The membership fee – a dime a day – is used to support Yoursphere’s safety measures + to provide activities, prizes, and rewards for each and every member.

·       Offers scholarships and supports youth-selected philanthropies: 3% of each membership fee is pooled into a scholarship program.

Use promo code: YSMD-BERR to get discount on membership. 

Teens such as those from RadicalParenting (parenting from the kids perspective), who reviewed Yoursphere: The Best Virtual World For Your Kids believe your kids and your readers will love a Yoursphere membership because:

· kids and teens enjoy at Yoursphere:  privacy, building friendships, creating and uploading content, joining groups or creating their own, writing stories, uploading pictures, entering contests, showcasing their creativity, earning rewards…even scholarships, plus members get to support the causes they care about! In addition, the credits members earn just for participating on the site can be redeemed for rewards like a shopping spree, ipod, movie tickets, iphone, their favorite DVD’s, games like Guitar Hero and more!

·   Yoursphere is a totally different story than any other social network site our teens have reviewed.  As soon as you log on, whether you are a parent or kid you will see that this site has amazing graphics, videos and safety–an essential combination for kids online.  We loved it because it takes the best activities, videos and games and puts them in one place where you do not have to worry about spam, creepsters or uncool entertainment. Awesome.

I was given a free Yoursphere membership for my daughters.

So glad I didn't have to get tie dye out of my 6th grader's laundry from Outdoor Education Camp!

We have a joke in the Musings from Me house that my MIL is so intent on keeping the kids clean that she puts the kids in the washing machine. Disclaimer: I only joke about this with my preteen and teen…don’t want to the kid to get any ideas!

It is not unheard of for my MIL to wash an outfit that a kid got dirty and have the outfit washed, dried, and possibly ironed before we leave after spending the afternoon at Grandma’s house. In our house my kids are lucky to have clean clothes on a daily basis!

It is not just the speed of the laundry process that is noteworthy…it’s the scent, too. All items smell of detergent, fabric softener, bleach, and dryer sheets. It’s a little overpowering, but still smells good and clean…odd I know! My MIL leaves no stone unturned in her laundry arsenal. 

The scent is not wholly unpleasant. It’s just a little overwhelming in an olfactory sort of way. There is no question as to whether a garment has been washed or not. The scent gives it away — you can smell the garment in the next room.

Speaking of scents, I can’t help but think of perfume… As a teen my family travelled to France regularly — we lived in England so it was easy to drive to Dover, drive on the the car ferry (the Chunnel had not been built yet), drive off the car ferry at Calais, and motor in to France. We visited Paris (a couple of times), La Rochelle (it rained every day for our July vacation), the Loire valley (chateaux and wine country) Le Sable d’Olonne, the south of France (Monaco/Monte Carlo, La Cadiere D’Azur, Menton), and quite a few places in between. One of the most memorable was a visit to Fragonard perfume factory in Grasse.

My parents were constantly stopping to tour vineyards and cognac factories. Oh and of course sampling the wines. Hey! I don’t recall a designated driver! My sister and I would enjoy the tours, but were never able to sample the wines or cognac. Lest you feel sorry for us — it was a good thing as I was 14 and my sister 12!

At the Fragonard perfume factory I saw how perfumes were made and then tested out many of the fragrances. Fragonard made the essence for perfumes such as Chanel, Miss Dior, and many others. For years I had a small bottle of Le Cinq, which was a version of Chanel No. 5 before Chanel added the secret ingredient. I bought my bottle of Le Cinq with my pocket money something I could not afford if I purchased the real Chanel.   

Why am I writing about the smell of our laundry? I saw this post and got inspired. If scents are your thing — Downy is hosting a contest, Design Your Scent. Enter their contest for a chance to help design one of the next Simple Pleasure scents. You could also win $100 Spa Finder Gift card in their weekly sweeps. Check it out here.